Jon Langford will lead the Mekons in an electric show at the Bell House Friday night and an acoustic show Saturday night at City Winery (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Friday, October 7, the Bell House, 149 Seventh St., with Chris Mills, $18-$20, 8:00
Saturday, October 8, City Winery, 155 Varick St., $22-$28, 10:00
www.mekons.de
“You know our time is running out,” the Mekons proclaim on the rollicking “Space in Your Face,” one of eleven tracks on their outstanding new album, Ancient & Modern: 1911–2011 (Bloodshot, September 2011), their twenty-sixth studio record in a long career that has included such masterworks as The Quality of Mercy (1979), Fear and Whiskey (1985), Edge of the World (1986), So Good It Hurts (1988), and Rock ‘n’ Roll (1989) as well as the more recent Punk Rock (2004) and Natural (2007). Through all the changes in the music industry over the last thirty-plus years, one thing has remained constant — the Mekons are still one of the great, underrated bands, a cult favorite and critics darling that has flirted with breakout success that never quite reached the mainstream. But that hasn’t stopped Jon Langford, Sally Timms, Tom Greenhalgh. Robert “Lu” Edmonds, Sarah Corina, Steve Goulding, Susie Honeyman, and Rico Bell from releasing consistently strong albums and even stronger live shows, whether sitting around in a semicircle playing acoustic instruments, carefully being watched over by den mother Timms, or rocking out at an old-fashioned blowout. As they’ve been doing since the late 1970s, on Ancient & Modern: 1911–2011 they mix country, folk, rock, pop, Celtic, psychedelia, troubadour, sea shanty, Tin Pan Alley, and just about any other genre you can think of on jaunty, intelligent songs, including such standouts as “Geeshie,” “The Devil at Rest,” “I Fall Asleep,” and the vintage-Mekons-sounding “Honey Bear.” They’re in town for a pair of shows this weekend, playing “a wild night out with the electrified Mekons” at the Bell House tonight, followed by “a quiet night in with the acoustic Mekons” at City Winery tomorrow. We’ve seen them perform at both ends of the spectrum, as well as in the middle, and at various levels of intoxication (us and them), and they never fail to deliver an exciting, thrilling, unpredictable show. A world that includes the Mekons is just a better place for everyone, whether they know it or not.
When they were junior high school students in South Central Los Angeles in 1979, Angelo Moore and Norwood Fisher formed the core of Fishbone, what would soon become one of the most exciting live bands on the planet. Chris Metzler and Lev Anderson document the band’s rise and fall — and rise and fall, and rise and fall, etc. — in the stirring Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone. Using archival footage, old and new interviews, and playful animation, Metzler and Anderson follow the group — Moore and Fisher along with fellow founding members Chris Dowd, Walter “Dirty Walt” Kibby II, and Kendall Jones — through its many personal and financial struggles as it tries to deal with such socioeconomic issues as racism, violence, and the anti-liberal bias taking hold of the nation in Ronald Reagan’s 1980s. Fishbone held nothing back on such albums as In Your Face (1986), Truth and Soul (1988), The Reality of My Surroundings (1991), Give a Monkey a Brain and He’ll Swear He’s the Center of the Universe (1993), and Chim Chim’s Badass Revenge (1996), mixing in pop, punk, funk, ska, reggae, R&B, soul, jazz, and hardcore, prancing about the stage without shirts, diving into the crowd, and always speaking their mind, and they hold nothing back in Everyday Sunshine as well. Narrated by Laurence Fishburne, the film really picks up speed when it delves into the Rodney King beating and the mysterious circumstances involving Jones’s religious transformation and the band’s attempt at an intervention. The decidedly unusual tale also features an impressive lineup of talking heads offering their views on the history of Fishbone, including Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Perry Farrell from Jane’s Addiction, fIREHOSE’s Mike Watt, No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal, the Roots’ ?uestlove, Gogol Bordello’s Eugene Hutz, Parliament-Funkadelic’s George Clinton, Primus’s Les Clayool, Living Colour’s Vernon Reid, Circle Jerk Keith Morris, Ice-T, and, perhaps most informatively, Columbia Records executive David Kahne, who lends fascinating insight into what made Fishbone great — and what kept them from greater success. While you definitely don’t have to know a thing about Fishbone to enjoy this very intimate documentary, longtime fans should eat it up. Everyday Sunshine has its New York theatrical premiere October 7-13 at the reRun Gastropub Theater in Brooklyn in conjunction with the release of Fishbone’s latest release, the seven-track EP Crazy Glue (DC-Jam, October 11, 2011). Metzler, Anderson, Moore, and Fisher will appear in person at many of this weekend’s screenings, at least one of which will also include a live performance.
